NEW YORK NATIVE DROPS DEBUT MIXTAPE
By James Stemple, Staff Writer
When Lou the Human released his first song back in 2016, he quickly developed a fanbase. Now, Lou has released his debut mixtape, “Humaniac,” on Oct. 13 with fans delighted and craving more.
Raised in Staten Island, New York, Lou has been a rapper for years and started doing rap battles in middle school. His tape shows he’s been at it for a while through a dark and twisted, yet somehow funny lyrical composition.
The tape is short with only 10 songs, but it’s impressive considering that Lou produced the beats himself and has no features on it.
Lou seeks to experiment with rap. The tape has a variety of voices throughout that accompany Lou as if they really were voices in his head. Though these voices can sometimes be distracting and intrusive, they’re all a part of the experience Lou is trying to convey, like in songs ‘Schizophrenia’ and ‘Halal.’ This voice is commonly represented by a guy in a Freddy Krueger mask in his music videos and live performances.
Lou is always focused on bars. On songs like ‘Brink,’ which was his first song, he raps over a simple beat and isn’t concerned with hooks or choruses—which is common in all of his songs—his words flow to the point where you have to stop and really listen.
But when you do stop and listen, you can really see how dark it can get. In the very first song on the tape, ‘Lou’s Dead,’ he raps “I’ve been thinkin’ bout/Jumping off of a building just to see if I can fly/Or see if I could die, I’m a conceited kinda guy.” He really just doesn’t care what others think and goes for shock value. He throws humor into his twisted, lyrics like in ‘Roseanne,’ where he raps “I stopped tryna figure out what life’s about/I’d rather be on WorldStar for knockin’ Mike Tyson out.”
The beats themselves are interesting despite how simple they are. Lou produced them himself, proclaiming he’d been making beats since he was 12 years old. The beats range from sampling Wu-Tang Clan’s ‘Bring da Ruckus,’ to a smidgen of ‘Black Dog,’ by Led Zeppelin. The beats are really creative and serve to deliver Lou’s bars in the perfect way for a debut mixtape.
You can see Lou is just getting started. Although you can clearly see who influenced him on this tape—Eminem is a huge influence—Lou has a lot of room to grow as an artist. If this is just the beginning, then I consider it a pleasure to be here watching Lou make more music.
Graphic by Allie McAlpine
